Guatemala to protect judges in Rios Montt's case

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan judge says that she and two other justices who convicted former dictator Efrain Rios Montt of genocide and sentenced him to 80 years in prison will receive protection.

Judge Yassmin Barrios Aguilar declines to provide details, but earlier the Inter-American Human Rights Commission called on Guatemala's government to protect her along with judges Pablo Xitumul de Paz and Patricia Bustamante Garcia.

The commission says Guatemala's Center for Justice and International Law requested the protection. The non-governmental group says in a statement Wednesday that the judges have been put through an intense campaign to discredit and stigmatize them and have been threatened publicly by Rios Montt's lawyers.

In May, Guatemala's top court overturned the conviction of Rios Montt and ordered his trial restarted. Rios Montt remains under house arrest.